The office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI) has asked the police minister to plead with the cabinet to change legislation to allow spooks to intercept your WhatsApp conversations.
This is because law enforcement agencies are frustrated that they are unable to snoop around WhatsApp chats, and are using crime prevention and combating as an excuse to legalise listening to private WhatsApp calls and voice notes, and reading your conversations without your knowledge and permission.
The disturbing titbits are contained in an explosive classified report compiled by suspended IGI boss Imtiaz Fazel and submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa, suspended police minister Senzo Mchunu, acting minister Firoz Cachalia, and parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence.
As things stand, intelligence services, including but not limited to the SAPS’s Crime Intelligence (SAPS-CI), cannot access WhatsApp chats.
The report, which we have seen, argues that this is fertile ground and a massive loophole for criminals to exploit in plotting their criminal activities freely, away from the prying eyes of law enforcement agencies.
“There is an urgent need for the management of intelligence services to escalate this matter to the cabinet and law enforcement agencies for better enforcement of the provisions in section 40 (70) of Rica (Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act) by electronic communication service providers.
“The minister of police should consider bringing about the regulatory changes that will compel WhatsApp to allow interception of communication by law enforcement agencies,” reads the IGI report.
“The new technology has had a negative effect on the Office of the Interception Centre (OIC) and law enforcement agencies’ capabilities.
“The capacity to intercept new communication media by the OIC should be regularly reviewed and attended to in terms of the development and the acquisition of functional and appropriate systems to upgrade the outdated infrastructure, as well as a review of the regulatory environment to compel service providers to disclose the required information for investigation purposes.”
The report complains that the inability to peep into your WhatsApp chats, even with a warrant, is a source of immense frustration.
“Organised criminal networks and/or syndicates have become aware of this limitation and are now frequently utilising WhatsApp communication to communicate their criminal activities. This was noted during several intelligence operations aimed at disrupting crime threats posed by the All-Truck Drivers Forum, where targets were communicating via WhatsApp to further their criminal activities.
“Consequently, the law enforcement agencies were unable to intercept the targets’ WhatsApp communication. In addition, the inability to intercept WhatsApp is frustrating the efforts of law enforcement agencies to decisively tackle kidnapping for ransom cases that are becoming prevalent in our country.”
As if this is not a big enough headache, the report goes on, intelligence services are battling even for SMS and phone call interception of unregistered SIM cards.
In instances where SAPS crime intelligence applies to the designated judge to intercept unregistered SIM cards, such requests are rejected outright since there is no full information on the owners of the non-Ricad SIM cards.
“We were informed during our oversight engagements with management of SAPS-Cl that the designated judge for interception is not inclined to issue direction in respect of an application wherein there is no validation of the identity of the person or persons against whose name(s) a SIM card is registered.
“As a consequence, thereof, many applications for interceptions are rejected due to insufficient information made available to SAPS-CI by network service providers in respect of unregistered SIM cards.
“This limitation of law to intercept unregistered SIM cards is also exacerbated by the inability of law enforcement agencies to intercept WhatsApp communication, which has an embedded end-to-end encryption, even with a warrant,” the report further stated.
While law enforcement agencies are trying all the tricks in the book to get inside your WhatsApp, 15 drones procured by crime intelligence for half a million rands in 2020 for surveillance purposes remain unused to date.
“The divisional management of the SAPS-CI should consider conducting an internal investigation into the procurement of 15 drones and establish the circumstances which led to the non-utilisation of the drones.”
